Wikipedia closes an account it asserts was likely used by Tory chairman Grant Shapps to edit rivals’ pages
Wikipedia has blocked a contributor account investigators claim was operated by Conservative chairman Grant Shapps “or someone acting on his behalf” to edit rival’s entries, according to the Guardian.
A user called 'Contribsx' was banned today (Tuesday 21 April) by the site under suspicion of ‘sock-puppetry’ - the act of creating a contributor profile “or an improper purpose, such as to mislead other editors, disrupt discussions, distort consensus or avoid sanctions”.
Wikipedia appoints volunteers to scour the site for false contributors to assure accurate information is published on the site.
On such investigator published findings listing a whole series of edits which led them to believe Shapps was in some way involved,
These include Contribsx “attacked an opposition MP who had referred Shapps' activities to the police”, “made a change to Michael Fabricant’s page to say he was sacked by Grant Shapps”, “made edits to draw attention to other Cabinet members for supporting gay marriages” and “also edits huge swathes of the Grant Shapps page, almost always removing criticism”.
Concluding: “To clarify, I can't say either way that is Shapps' account, or run by him. All I can say is that I believe that it's a sockpuppet of the Hackneymarsh account.”
The Hackneymarsh account had been previously linked to Grant Snapps, with him accused of using it to edit his own Wikipedia page.
The Guardian says that a Conservative spokesman dubbed the accusation “completely false and defamatory” and “nonsense from start to finish” however it says it sent Shapps personally the edit log, and never received a response.